God’s Hammer (3): The More Sure Word (Part 2)

In the last issue, we considered Peter’s eyewitness account of Christ’s transfiguration (II Peter 1:16-18).  Peter states that the Scriptures are “a more sure word” (19) than even his experience on the “holy mount” (18).  Now if Scripture (and the Old Testament at that) is more sure than seeing Christ transfigured in the presence of  Moses and Elijah and hearing God’s voice from heaven, then Scripture may fairly be said to be more sure than anything else.  Thus God’s Word is absolutely true and trustworthy.

Higher critics slander the Bible as being filled with myths and errors, as if it consists of “cunningly devised fables” (16).  Evolutionists consign Genesis 1 to the realms of pre-scientific legends.  Let God’s Word be true and unbelieving man a liar!

Many are convinced that the virgin Mary has appeared at Fatima or Lourdes.  “People have seen her,” they exclaim.  Some claim that they receive direct revelation from God, outside of and apart from the Bible. “The Lord told me to do such and such,” they declare.  Others maintain that the worship of idols brings them nearer to God.  “I have experienced this,” they say, “and I ought to know!”  But the Bible is more sure than man’s experiences and when the Bible contradicts man’s experiences, they are spurious.

We often exalt our feelings to a position above that of the Word.  We say, “I won’t pray because I don’t feel like it.”  But the Bible says, “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).  We attend faithful preaching of the Word, but stop going because we think that we are getting nothing out of it.  Scripture, however, commands us to “desire” the Word (I Peter 2:2).  The Bible is more sure than our feelings and so the Bible, and not our feelings, must determine what we believe and do.  If your feelings determine your obedience, you will be crippled as a Christian.

Scripture is also more sure than even the church fathers and Christian leaders.  Ministers and elders may err but the Bible never errs.  Martin Luther rightly said that one layman armed with the Scriptures is more to be believed than all the popes and councils without the Scriptures.  Nothing can be more sure than the Word of the true and living God who cannot lie.  The Bible is “more sure” than all the learned books and all the religious feelings and experiences of man which are contrary to the Scriptures. Having this “more sure word…ye do well that ye take heed”(19)